Economic Development Journal - Summer 2017

by Karl Dorshimer Publicly owned sports stadiums provide great public benefits but often don’t generate enough revenue to be financially self-sustaining. Communities can be faced with the challenge of having to permanently subsidize stadium operations, maintenance, and improvements. The city of Lansing, Michigan, met this challenge by combining necessary public stadium improvements with a private mixed-use development. The Outfield project won IEDC’s Gold and Silver Excellence Awards.

by Ryan Regan The millennial generation represents the greatest share of the U.S. workforce, and there is little doubt that they will have a significant long-term impact on the field of economic development. Increasingly it is the generation’s trademark diversity and open-minded social beliefs that are driving new conversations about how economic development is thought of and practiced.

by Elizabeth Thelen The BREW (Business. Research. Entrepreneurship. In Wisconsin) Accelerator, winner of IEDC’s Gold Award for Entrepreneurship, unleashes water innovation by funding water technology startups with a 24-month launch target. The BREW is part of The Water Council in Milwaukee.

by Nancey Green Leigh, Ph.D., FAICP and Benjamin R. Kraft The Alabama Robotics Technology Park is a unique facility and public workforce development program that provides robotics training and research and development space to Alabama manufacturing firms and their employees.

by N. David Milder For smaller communities, e.g., those with populations under 35,000, business recruitment should focus more on attracting talented people than on companies. This is best achieved through proactive quality-of-life business recruitment programs.

by Emil Malizia, Ph.D., FAICP This article is based on an empirical analysis of 100 large metro areas in the U.S. Their economic base measured from 1970 to 2000 was associated with economic outcomes in 2010. Metro areas with a more dynamic economic base had higher household incomes and higher property values than more stagnant metros. The study provides support for the article’s conclusion that long-term, spatially coordinated economic development makes sense.